Plague and Glasnost. First information about human cases in the USSR in 1989 and 1990

In October 1989 the first case of plague death in the USSR was reported to WHO. This occurrence in man did not surprise plague experts. The country has extensive enzootic areas and the persistence of natural foci, which can be silent for many years, has been well studied. It is known that the plague bacillus can survive and multiply in the soil of rodent burrows and restart local or more extensive transmissions in carrier animals. Isolated cases in man can remain accidental or they may signal a larger epizootic outbreak. The official policy of the comprehensive antiplague services was to eradicate the natural foci by antirodent activities which proved impossible. The present report from the Central Asian part of the USSR in the wake of Glasnost augurs well for the surveillance of plague worldwide as for a period of over fifty years the occurrence of cases in man in this country had been denied.